This was our first cruise, got a good deal on the net for an outside stateroom albeit obstructed by the life boats.
We flew in from Calgary and stayed at the holiday and took a cab ($6) to the pier for embarkation. It was pouring but we were hurried in the tent like bldg where it was chaos.
The cruise before ours had "GI" acronym for Norovirus and the crew had to spend extra time decontaminating the ship...that was the first indication that things may not run smoothly. Well we got our NCL combo keycard/charge card and boarded with no problems.